The Wisdom of Billy Sunday

One of the great American Christians of the 19th and 20th centuries was William Ashley Sunday, commonly known as Billy Sunday. Starting out as a baseball player, he had a deep religious experience and became a famous hellfire and brimstone preacher. An adherent to the Fundamentalist Christian Movement, he supported women's suffrage and an end to child labor. During the early 20th century he traveled throughout the United States of America, preaching in a fashion not unlike Billy Graham does today. Some of his best statements from these sermons are lsited below, as well as a link to more.

Live so that when the final summons comes you will leave something more behind you than an epitaph on a tombstone or an obituary in a newspaper.

The Lord is not compelled to use theologians. He can take snakes, sticks or anything else, and use them for the advancement of his cause.

I believe that a long step toward public morality will have been taken when sins are called by their right names.

Home is the place we love best and grumble the most.

There is more power in a mother's hand than in a king's scepter.

I don't believe there are devils enough in hell to pull a boy out of the arms of a godly mother.

There is nothing in the world of art like the songs mother used to sing.

To train a boy in the way he should go you must go that way yourself.

Don't stop with telling your boy to do right. Show him how.

Going to church doesn't make a man a Christian, any more than going to a garage makes him an automobile.

The difference between God's side and the devil's is the difference between heaven and hell.

God keeps no half-way house. It's either heaven or hell for you and me.

A man can slip into hell with his hand on the door-knob of heaven.

The Bible will always be full of things you cannot understand, as long as you will not live according to those you can understand.

The inconsistency is not in the Bible, but in your life.

Quotations found at this location.